scalene
by justjoy
Summary: "What, you lost your key, Uehara?"


_please see profile for important note!_

* * *

His doorbell rings at eight in the morning, right as he's put the kettle to boil.

"Hang on!" Kansuke hollers as he not-quite-hobbles over.

(He'd somehow ended up falling asleep on the sofa last night. That was bad for everything but especially his leg, which had been acting like a particularly recalcitrant suspect all morning.

One he would've arrested for obstruction of justice five times over, if he had any say in the matter. He usually did.)

Kansuke narrowly misses tripping into the entranceway like an idiot, and opens the door to find Uehara Yui standing on his front porch.

Or _Torada_ Yui. Probably. Although given entire the Furinkazan shitshow that had gone down last week...

Ugh, _whatever,_ he didn't care. Like it mattered now anyway.

Kansuke turns sharply, pretends he doesn't nearly overbalance, and stomps his way back inside the house. "What, you lost your key, Uehara?"

He's answered by the jangle of familiar keys, probably still attached to the souvenir keychains from both of their high school trips. "Of course not, I just wasn't sure if you'd want me to come in myself. And good morning to you too, Kan-chan."

"Good _bloody_ morning, right," Kansuke mutters as he finally manages to sit back down at the kitchen table, leaning the crutch against one corner of it. "You might as well make the coffee if you're going to drop by out of the blue, it's too damned early for this."

Yui sets a convenience store bag down on the table and opens the cupboards as if she never left – he hasn't changed things much in the past year. "Too early for what?" she asks, pouring coffee beans into the grinder.

Kansuke makes an irritated noise as he tugs the bag towards him, already spotting the packaging of his favourite anpan bread. "To ask what you meant by that! I gave you and – " he grimaces " – _Koumei_ the keys for a reason, didn't I?"

For the next few minutes, there's nothing between them except for the sound of coffee being ground to death, and the rip of the anpan's plastic wrapper as he tears it open.

It leaves an abrupt silence when Yui sets the grinder down with a muffled clang – it's one of those fancy metallic devices that Koumei had given him on some wholly unnecessary occasion. "I don't know what you expect me to say, Kan-chan. You've been avoiding me for months, why should I think that you'd want me walking into your house unannounced?"

Kansuke bites off another chunk of bread and chews, angrily. "Has that idiot Koumei been talking behind my back again?"

"Morofushi-keibu didn't tell me anything, no." She reaches up to another shelf for the coffee press (this one not a gift from Koumei, thankfully) and dumps in three heaped tablespoons of ground coffee. "But I _was_ a detective, you know."

"Are." Kansuke frowns when she turns to look at him, slightly confused. "You _are_ a detective, Uehara. Doesn't matter if you've been reinstated or not, you're still one of the more tolerable subordinates that I've had – "

The kettle chooses this moment to whistle shrilly on the stove.

Kansuke glares at it, offended.

(Honestly, he would've replaced it with an electric one a long time ago if Yui hadn't picked this one out for him. Maybe he should just give it to her and be done with it?

...although that would probably get him another lecture from Koumei that he wasn't in the mood for, so forget it. At least this kettle knew when to stop.)

" – not that there's much competition on that front, I don't know why we have so many idiots in the _prefectural headquart–_ what?" he snaps at the odd expression on Yui's face.

"Ah, nothing!" Yui fills the press and leaves it to brew, still with that half-smile he hasn't seen in a year. "I was just thinking that it'd be nice if you would say things like that more often, you know?"

Kansuke bristles at the words, viciously decimating the last of his anpan bread. "What, thinly veiled insults? Sure, I do them at Koumei only _all the time_ – "

He catches the definite flicker of a laugh as Yui flips open her handphone – to set a timer, probably, they've long lost track of how many pots of coffee have been ruined by them getting distracted. "Yes, I heard."

"Oh, so Koumei _did_ tell you about that, did he?" Kansuke's going to strangle his _friend_ after this. Or at least remind him that the crutch meant he had a blunt weapon attached to his arm all the time now. "I damn well hope he remembered to mention the part where I apologised to him!"

"He did," Yui confirms with a nod, sitting down across the table. "Morofushi-keibu seemed quite impressed by that, actually."

"Good, he better be," he grumbles darkly, taking out two umeboshi onigiri from the bag and tossing one to her. "Anyway, I already apologised once to that asshole, so like hell I'm doing it again! Even for you!"

"I wasn't – I mean, I'm not looking for an apology, Kan-chan! It's just..." Yui pulls half-heartedly at the onigiri packaging, and continues in a quieter voice. "I just need to know what you think of me, that's all."

"That's _my_ line, you idiot." Kansuke tears the plastic open with one sharp tug and swaps the onigiri with hers. "I basically cost you your job, Yui. Aren't you supposed to be angry at me or something?"

"Like I said before, I quit because I thought you were dead, it wasn't anyone's fau–" Yui pauses. "Is _that_ why you were avoiding me, Kan-chan? Because you thought I'd be mad?"

Kansuke goes back to glaring at the kettle. _"Nope,"_ he answers shortly.

"Mm-hmm." Yui bites into her onigiri with a carefully raised eyebrow, because she's clearly been spending too much time around Koumei without his moderating influence. "So, do you want me around or not, Kan-chan? Or are you going to keep avoiding me?"

What a dumb question. Did the planets _want_ to go around the sun?

Yui rolls her eyes. "Right, never mind. Do you _not_ want me around, then?"

"No!" answers Kansuke on reflex, then – "I mean, I _don't_ not want you around, n– goddamnit, Yui, you're starting to sound like Koumei with these trick questions. You know what I mean."

"Fortunately for you, yes." Yui goes to grab two mugs from the rack when her phone alarm rings. "Otherwise I'd have to request a transfer to... hmm, Tokyo? I hear the Beika squad works with Conan-kun all the time, that'd be nice."

"That glasses brat?" Kansuke snorts. "Maybe we should transfer _him_ to Nagano instead, he can replace all of Takeda's goon squad. I'm sure the chief would be happy to give him Koumei's old office, we'll just get him a child seat to go with it or something."

Yui hands him his coffee with a grave expression. "I think you'll have to fight half the police departments in the country for that job offer, Kan-chan, he's already got quite the reputation."

"I'll bribe him with botamochi until he agrees," Kansuke says stubbornly.

He ignores Yui's chuckle. No one ever said no to his grandmother's recipes. _No one._

Except Koumei, who obviously didn't count since he was still stuck at his tiny village koban. And speaking of which –

Kansuke pauses halfway through dumping a second sugar packet into his mug. " _Why_ did you suddenly come over today, anyway? Without even calling me first."

"Oh, that." Yui returns to the table with her own mug. "I called headquarters yesterday about my reinstatement, and Aburakawa-kun mentioned that you were taking leave for personal reasons today."

He tastes the coffee and makes a face, reaching for yet more sugar. "So?"

"Well, you never take days off even when you're ill, Kan-chan, so..." Yui looks away abruptly, cheeks a distinct red. "...so I, er, assumed it was probably about me?"

He isn't _that_ predictable. He is _not_.

...he is, apparently.

Kansuke scowls into his finally-sweet coffee. "I was just planning to drop by today. In case you needed help with your stuff."

"Everything's packed, I was just waiting to settle my apartment's lease first." Yui's suddenly wearing the same unsuspicious expression that she'd used to get them out of trouble with Kai-senpai so many times. "And actually – um, Morofushi-keibu's offered to help drive things over, he said to tell you that don't have to worry about i–"

 _"Take my car,"_ Kansuke says flatly.

"Eh? But – "

"It's not like I'm using it, and you don't need Koumei's stupidly flashy car to move a bunch of boxes!"

"That's tr–"

"So you can tell him that I s–"

"Said what, exactly?"

Kansuke turns around to see Koumei standing in the doorway to the kitchen, having clearly had no issues with letting himself in. "What's _he_ doing here?"

"If you'd let me finish my sentence, Kan-chan," comes Yui's voice from behind him, "I was about to tell you that we'd agreed for him to drive me over later this afternoon. Sorry for the trouble, Morofushi-keibu!"

"You're quite welcome, Yui-san. Although I thought that you would've gotten started on the other move by now."

"Other...? Oh!" Yui looks sheepish when he glances over at her. "I'd almost forgotten all about it, to be honest."

"Quite understandably, I'd say." Koumei joins them at the table, armed with his usual boring thermos of tea and his most annoying expression. Again. "It's all in your best interests, Kansuke-kun, don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about _what?"_ he asks, feeling irritated – _increasingly_ irritated, rather, since Koumei's presence was irritating by definition.

Yui pushes the remaining items in the plastic bag towards Koumei. "Well, your room's still upstairs, right? I thought I'd come over to help you move some things to the guest room down here, it'd be easier on your leg and everything."

Kansuke's eyebrow twitches. "Do I get a say in this? At all?"

"As a matter of fact, no, not with how you've clearly taken up sleeping on the living room couch on a regular basis – "

 _"YOU SHUT UP, KOUMEI!"_

.

( **later:**

"What'd you even come over for if you were just going to sit there and drink tea! You've moved, like – what, _one_ book?"

"Two, actually, but as you've repeatedly said in the past, you don't need my help, so... do you require my assistance, Yui-san?"

"Ah, no, I can manage it just fine! I know where Kan-chan puts all his things anyway – ")

* * *

 **END**

* * *

 _*knocks on your door* hi i can't even with kansuke's pov help_


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